Planning for a summer delivery for your child? You might want to choose an ophthalmologist along with an obstetrician.

If your child is born in the winter or fall, it will have better long-range eyesight throughout its lifetime and less chance of requiring thick corrective glasses, predicts a Tel Aviv University investigation led by Dr. Yossi Mandel, a senior ophthalmologist in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Windows® SteadyState™ is now available. (Windows SteadyState was formerly known as Microsoft® Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP.) Whether you manage computers in a school computer lab or an Internet café, a library, or even in your home, Windows SteadyState helps make it easy for you to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them. Windows SteadyState is easier to download, set up, use, and maintain than Shared Computer Toolkit.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

(AP) -- Summer's annual meteor shower promises to put on a dazzling show when it peaks this weekend - provided you're far from city lights. With no moon in sight to interfere with the Perseid meteor shower, skygazers can expect to spot streaking fireballs late Sunday into dawn Monday regardless of time zone. Astronomers estimate as many as 60 meteors per hour could flit across the sky at the shower's peak.This year's sky show comes with an added bonus: Mars will be visible as a bright red dot in the northeastern sky.

Last year's Perseid shower was somewhat of a dud because the moon's glare washed out many of the faint meteors. This weekend's meteor shower coincides with a new moon, which means the skies will be dark and perfect for viewing meteors.

Experts offer some tips to get the most out of nature's fireworks: Since Perseid meteors can be seen from any direction in the sky, viewers should pick out a dark patch of sky free of light pollution and wait for the meteors to appear.

Dim meteors appear as a momentary flash of light while the brighter ones leave a glowing streak. The number of Perseids zipping across the sky should increase steadily through the night, peaking just before sunrise. Although the peak occurs this weekend, the Perseids are visible for several nights after that.

Unlike other celestial sightings that require a telescope or binoculars, the best way to watch a meteor shower is with the naked eye.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals

2. Conservatives

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girliemen.

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the [censored].

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef welldone. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are engineers, IT persons, big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history. It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it. A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tick them off .

Thursday, August 09, 2007

BBC NEWS | Americas | Canada PM asserts Arctic claims: "Canada's prime minister has stressed his country's claims to the Arctic region on a trip there, days after Russia laid claim to the North Pole. Correspondents say Stephen Harper's tour has taken on new urgency since Russian sailors dropped a flag on the sea bed below the pole last week."

Russian bombers have flown to the US Pacific island of Guam in a manoeuvre reminiscent of the Cold War era. Two Tu-95 turboprops flew this week to Guam, home to a big US military base, Russian Maj Gen Pavel Androsov said, a story confirmed by the US. They "exchanged smiles" with US pilots who scrambled to track them, he added. BBC NEWS | Europe | Russia sparks Cold War scramble

Saturday, August 04, 2007

1. Don't worry about what people think; they don't do it very often.2. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.3. It ain't the jeans that make your butt look fat.4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.5. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program6. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.7. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.8. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.9. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.10. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.11. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.12. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist is reversed.13. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.14. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.15. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you do the same thing again.16. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.17. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.18. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.19. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

20. And never, EVER take a sleeping pill and a laxative in the same night.